www.natashayong.com

5 Hungry People on a Road Trip for One simple purpose - TO EAT!

What was supposed to be a Malaysian Kelong Weekend Escapade turned out to be Malacca Food Day Road Trip! As usual, getting consensus for a Date, Cost and Program amongst a not so young bunch of people proved almost impossible to organize. It was eventually, the monsoon that sealed our decision that January wasn't the right time for a Kelong Trip. Since the date was already reserved, we settled for a Road Trip. And when it came to FOOD, everyone had a suggestion or two about what they wanted dig into after two butt warming hours in the car. As far as I can remember (excluding those family road trips when I was little), I visited the historical Malaccan town in 2007 with the Singapore Women's Cycling Team (SWCT) on a 250km ride for Hearts On Wheels (H.O.W) Charity and probably a decade earlier with Esther, Charles and Pris.

The Food Trail:
10:30am - Breakfast Pitstop
Somewhere between Tuas and Malacca
You cannot expect much from a stop-over break. Expect however, sub-standard food at semi-reasonable pricing of which a portion of the cost goes to the availability for you to use the toilets.


My Bee Hoon Soto

11:30am - Early Lunch Stop
Ole Sayang Nonya

Authentic Peranakan setting


Ordering Rendang Chicken, Chap Chye, Sotong, Sambal Prawns, Omelet...

I surprise people when they hear that I listen and know how to sing Mandarin songs, much less attend a Mandopop Concert. To many, I am what they call a 'Banana' - Yellow on the outside, white in the inside or "Jiak Kang Dang" - Someone who eats potato. Ironically, my staple is very much white rice! Lately, a new friend started commenting that I am a closet Lian ("莲").
In the words of Wikipedia:

"Pejorative term applied to a certain group of ethnic Chinese girls in Southeast Asia, especially Singapore and Malaysia. They are regarded as bimbos, and are stereotyped as anti-intellectual, superficial, materialistic, and shallow."

Closer friends exclaim at how non-lian I am. I am simply amused at the different vibes I portray.

In all honestly, there are few Mandarin artists I follow. They include; Jacky Cheung, Jay Chou, Sammy Cheng, Wakin Chau (Emil Chau), Faye Wong, S.H.E and A-Mei. They are all A-list artists and I largely know their songs for those rare karaoke occasions. If my iTunes playlist have any Canto / Mandopop songs, it would be theirs. That's as far as I will go. Really.

A-Mei (Chang Hui Mei)'s music goes back a long time to my Uni-days. Attending a A-Mei concert, besides her powerhouse vocals was also very sentimental. I hate to admit it, but I am really a very soft cookie!

Asia’s reigning Queen of Mandopop celebrates 15 years in showbiz with her musical extravaganza AMeiZING WORLD TOUR LIVE. Concert goers were promised an out-of the-world music experience as the Taiwanese multi-award winning vocalist entertained from 8pm - 11:30pm! A whooping 3.5hrs where the “Pride of Taiwan” delivered a repertoire of all-time favourite hits such as “Bad Boy”, “牽手”, “姊妹”, “三天三夜” as well as the emotional “記得”, “聽海”,“我要快樂”, ‘哭不出來”.


Kicking off her concert with an electrifying start, A-Mei, who was decked in a modern-take of her aboriginal costume with wind-swept curls, easily commanded the attention of the full house Singapore Indoor Stadium with her undeniable stage presence.


View from our seats
We had awesome seats in the house, as close as could right to stage for our price range (S$128). I even had my AKIRA flash stick from the National Day Parade whipped out! Cheesy to the max, but who cares!


A-Mei 张惠妹 - 日出


A-Mei 张惠妹 - 给我感觉

I hope you will reflect on what you’ve done with your talent and energy. I hope you will judge yourselves not on your professional accomplishments alone, but also on how well you work to address the world’s deepest inequities, on how well you treat people a world away who have nothing in common with you but their humanity.

- Bill Gates to members of the Harvard community

People will forever compare Steve Jobs' Stanford Commencement Speech in 2005 which we will also remember with "Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish". Jobs made the world more beautiful and the billion of us with resources loved him for it. Gates is making the world ideal, and the billions of us with no voice will be forever impacted.

At the end of the day, I'm happy that the very rich are doing their part for the many in the world that are far less fortunate. Call him a philanthropist or not... I don't really care.

Read:
Really! You Gotta Love the New Windows Phone Ad
Top 50 Most Social Companies 2010
The Future through Microsoft
Microsoft vs. Mac Part II: "New Family"
Microsoft vs. Mac: Revenge with Jerry Seinfeld Shoe Circus Commercial
Bill Gates' Last Day

2nd day in 2012 and what did you do?

Pretty ironic that the Kite Flying outing at Marina Barrage resulted in NO KITE FLYING pictures! Actually I am sure there are a couple of shots in another DSLR camera. Just don't know whose...

Dinesh has some pretty neat toys and amongst his DSLR cameras, prime lens, bicycles... is a Fish Kite. Kite flying goes back a long way when the 1st generation STYG Youth used to gather and fly our kites in the now defunct Marina South. Well, Marina South is still present... but have under gone numerous transformations. I remembered the place for cheap Eat-All-You-Want Korean BBQ, Bus 400, Victor's Superbowl and a large empty grass field for kite flying.

Kites too have gone a long way. These days, they are huge, equipped with LED lights and have some big-ass reeling system strapped to a body harness. Gone are the days of simple tracing paper kites! In fact, one of my art and craft project in school was to build a kite from "sapulily" broom and tracing paper! Dinesh's Fish Kite was mid-sized but despite good winds, it wasn't all that easy to lift the kite and keep it afloat. Somehow I didn't recall lifting a kite to be difficult previously. There were occasions where the release of the line get entangled and wind turbulence that cause the kite to suddenly drop. I did get the kite flying pretty high at a few stages and am still amazed at how some other kites can be flown waaaaaaaaaaaaaaay up there!

While the rest of the world was committing themselves to 2012 New Year resolutions, I was creating myself a BUCKET LIST. And so on 1 January 2012, I had one :D
I'm still very much well and kicking (thank God) but as I sat down to give what I wanna do before I "kick the bucket"; I came up with the following 51 items.
They largely surround diving, visiting places and watching concerts. I admit the list is incomplete and probably will include a couple of "spiritual" items; of which I must give some serious thought. And than the ultimate question remain... what if I die tomorrow... will I truly regret not having completed any of the items at all?
All that being said, I must remember to get Wendy's template for my Mass Funeral Booklet.

The Bucket List online can be found at
http://www.dayzeroproject.com/user/natashayong/

As of 1 January
1) Scuba dive off Australia's Great Barrier Reef
2) Scuba dive in Palau Micronesia
3) Scuba dive in Bali with the Mola Mola Sun Fish
4) Scuba dive in Manado
5) Scuba dive in Sipadan
6) Scuba dive in a Shark Cage at Cape Town, South Africa
7) Learn Spanish
8) See the Northern Lights
9) Visit Machu Picchu PERU
10) Hike Mount Kilimanjaro TANZANIA
11) Hike the Grand Canyon ARIZONA
12) Visit Las Vegas NEVADA
13) Visit Israel
14) Visit Dubai
15) Visit Angkor Wat CAMBODIA
16) Run a Marathon
17) Watch Tennis Rafael Nadal on Clay
18) Watch Tennis Grand Slam at Wimbledon
19) Watch Tennis Grand Slam Australian Open
20) Build an iPhone app

Happy 2012 at Yello Jello!
This is how we PARTY! Boogieing the New Year away!

Read:
2011: Off to a WILD start
Catching up in the New Year (2010)
Retrospective 2008
Closing up 2007
The First and the Last (2006)
2005
Counting down to 2004